NAUTICAL THEME: An anchor can weigh you down. But Teah Mazzoni
of Mattapoisett cherishes the people who have been anchoring influences in her life, and has turned that philosophy into a blossoming grass-roots business.

Mazzoni, 33, a school teacher and dance instructor, tried to find an anchor bracelet to wear last spring to reflect her outlook, and when she couldn’t, went to a crafts website for raw materials to make her own. They came in a package of four, so she made them all into bracelets, giving some to the anchors in her life, the girlfriends she calls her “go-to ladies,” and her brother, Gene Mazzoni.

At her gym, women asked her for bracelets, a simple metal anchor with leather tie, so she made more. And at a Memorial Day picnic last year, women loved them, she said, and started bidding up to $30 for hers.

On the ride home, she came up with a business name: Anchor Me Bracelet. To date, she and Keogh have sold 6,000 units in their line, hand-making them in their Mattapoisett home, selling them in 69 stores across the country and one in St. John in the Virgin Islands, where they love to go sailing.

“I’m still amazed, still in awe, that people want something I created,” Mazzoni said over coffee one morning at Uncle Jon’s in Marion.

She designed them specifically to be tied on, because “you can’t do it yourself. Someone has to tie it on you, another symbol of the anchor they are in your life.”

Mazzoni and Keogh work full-time jobs and create their bracelets, which start at $11.95, on weekends and nights, enlisting the aid of her mom and a girlfriend. Last summer, she managed her site and Facebook page while at the beach, then went home to fill orders and had “the time of my life; it was like the summer of champions for Tim and me.”

They’ve also launched a “Catch Me” fish-hook bracelet, “with the hook to be worn toward your heart if you’re caught or away from it if you’re still fishing,” she said with a laugh.

Though the business is new, she’s also gotten into philanthropy, donating bracelets for various causes, including one to raise money for a Marion girl battling leukemia. She’s also helped raise money for Miss New Bedford’s entry into the Miss Massachusetts campaign.

“It’s not the bracelet itself; it’s the story with it,” Mazzoni said of people having anchors in their lives. “I love to give something to someone that has meaning.”

The bracelets are of a unisex design she said, adding about her boyfriend: “At first he didn’t want to wear one. But now he does. He’s one of the biggest anchors in my life.”

BUSINESS BRIEFS: F. Mari Morisset
of Randolph has been elected to the board at South Shore Stars in Weymouth, a nonprofit early education and youth development organization. A South Shore Stars “40 Under 40” award recipient in 2012, Morisset is a senior program management professional in the financial services industry, and is involved in such volunteer initiatives as the Mass Farmers Market, Cradles to Crayons, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and the Hattie Cooper Community Center. . . . Philip D. Murphy
of Milton has earned a certified elder law attorney designation from the National Elder Law Foundation. Murphy, who has his own law office in Milton, has practiced law for more than 30 years and focuses his practice on elder and special-needs law. . . . Marie Peeler, CEO of Peeler Associates in Pembroke, an executive coaching and leadership development firm, was named chairwoman of the South Shore Chamber of Commerce’s Marshfield-Pembroke-Duxbury Business Council. She had previously been vice chairwoman. At the group’s next meeting, on Feb. 25 at the Pembroke library, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz
is the scheduled speaker. For information, visit www.southshorechamber.org. . . . June Schaffer
of Stoughton was named office administrator of Cherrytree Group in Newton, a real estate services company. Schaffer previously was an administrator in the legal, medical and business fields, with a concentration in business law, and has worked for Harvard Medical School, Ameriprise Financial, and RBC Wealth Management.